Aftershocks
by kmmi95
Summary: What if Gwen and Jack picked up on differences when Jack came back at the begining of series 2? How would it change things?


Gwen Cooper walked into the Torchwood hub at 3:30 that morning. Her mind had been plaguing her with questions, where had he been? What had he done? What had changed him so? So sick of lying in bed with her soon to be husband unable to figure the answers out her she had got up, got dressed and sunk out of the house, leaving a note for Rhys saying that she was needed at work. She had driven to Torchwood, her mind running though all scenarios she could think of, each one more farfetched than the last.

The alarm went off as the cog door rolled open, Jack thinking that it was just Toshiko, coming back to pick up a file she had forgotten, did not get up. So he was startled slightly when a light knock sounded from someone tapping their knuckles against his office door. Looking though the glass he could see a familiar leather jacket and a head of dark shoulder length hair.  
>"Come in Gwen." He said Jack should have known that she wouldn't let it go; he knew she had noticed something wrong, something different with him. The door opened and in walked Gwen, no makeup on her face, her hair not styled carefully as it normally is, her clothes thrown on quickly and yet still the first threw Jacks head was how beautiful she was.<br>"Gwen, what can I do for you at this strange hour?" Although he knew exactly what was coming.  
>"What was with you today Jack, what happened while you were away that changed you?" she asked.<br>"Nothing, got killed a few times, nearly lost a friend, ran into an old friend I would rather have forgotten, you day has been much more scary than mine today."  
>"Bullshit Jack, that's not what I was asking and you know it. Something happened to you while you were away, something terrible and it changed you. I just wanted you to know that I am always here for you to talk to, if you want to. You seem to know everything about me; it would be nice to know what's going on in your head sometimes." She said. She turned and made towards the door, thinking that she was not going to get an answer out of him; her hand was turning the handle when she heard his voice<p>

"I heard the engines, so I went running, my Doctor was back, the Doctor I needed, the one who could fix me, but he couldn't." Gwen turned back to face Jack and slowly made her way back towards him where she sat down in the chair opposite him. "He tried to run away again but I wasn't going to let him go that easily, so I ran as hard as I could and threw myself at his ship, I held on, all the way threw the time vortex, it killed me but it didn't matter, I had found him. I met his new friend, my replacement and found out someone I thought dead for a long time, someone I had cared about was alive and well. My replacement, his new companion, was a Martha Jones, a training doctor, she was a lovely girl and we got along alright. But when I had gripped onto his machine it had tried to shake me off and had ended up taking us to the end of the universe. There was a rocket with the last remaining humans on, waiting to go to a place called Utopia. But the engines didn't work so we fixed that, but not before we had ran along into more trouble. The professor, a professor Yana, that had been the original one to build the engines changed, he became like my Doctor. He became an alien named a time lord, although my Doctor had thought that he was the only one left. The professor, who had remembered he was really called the master, stole the Doctor's machine and came back to earth in the 21st century. He assumed the identity Harold Saxon, and became prime minister. He led the world to believe that there was new race coming from the stars that were aliens coming to help us. But that was untrue, they were humans turned into little metal spheres that enjoyed killing a little too much. But me, the Doctor and Martha knew what was happening and managed to get on board the ship where the master and all the leaders of earth had gathered to greet the new aliens, a ship called the Valliant. We planned to stop the master but we could before it got out of hand, he created a paradox, aged the doctor to age 100, chained me up but Martha managed to get away and she saved us all, the whole world forgot the year of hell that had just happened, but we didn't, something about being at the eye of the storm. I was chained in the lower levels of the ship. Given just enough water and food to keep me alive, not that they cared they knew I couldn't die so every day the master would come down to where I was and try a kill me for good, I was shot, electrocuted, beheaded, bled dry and so many other horrible ways you think of to die was taken out on me but I came back every time, I had never wanted to die so much in my life, I thought it couldn't get any worse but I was so wrong. In the year he was in control no one had really suspected a thing in the beginning, and as Torchwood was under government control you lot, my team were under his control. He sent you to the Himalayas, on a wild goose chase, to get you out of the way so you were of no threat to him. One day Harold came down the stairs, to where I was, I thought that he was there to kill me again, but what he had was much worse. He came down, skipping as he was slightly insane, shouting in a sing-song voice that he had a present for me; it was then that I spotted the two soldiers behind him, carrying a large shapeless bag between them; they put it down and stood directly in front of me. On Harold's orders they opened it out and in it was your body, one of his teams came across the group of you dead in a cave and so he decided to give me your body, after that I decided I didn't care what they did to me, we were saved though eventually, and I was brought back to the real world, where this year of hell was just a nightmare and you were safe and sound."

Jack's voice was steady but there was a silent river of tears tracking down his cheeks. Gwen chocolate brown eyes were leaking tears also, listening to the horrors of what Jack had been through. Whether to comfort himself or her, Jack stood up, walked round the desk and sat back into his heels, right in front of Gwen, his Startling blue eyes looking into her chocolate ones, the lights in the ceiling reflecting of their eyes.  
>"The one thing that kept me from giving up was the thought of coming home to you, the knowledge in my head that you weren't really dead, that somewhere you were alive, still going about your life in normal way. That I hadn't caused your death."<br>"What do you mean that you hadn't caused my death?" She asked him.  
>"I asked you to join Torchwood, because I liked you, you had a spark of humanity that the rest of us had lost. You joining Torchwood killed you, after seeing you dead I decided that when I got back I would sack you, seeing you dead like that made me decide it and realise other things but I got back here and saw you organising everything and I couldn't make myself."<br>"Jack Harkness you would have to shoot me to get me to leave, I love this job more than anything, and I feel like I belong here. You need me Jack, and I need you." Jack smiled slightly; Gwen saw his face change to one of wondering and knew that there was a question brewing. True to Gwen's assumptions Jack asked  
>"Gwen, if you need me, why when I came back did you look so conflicted?" Gwen's face dropped, she had hoped he hadn't noticed.<br>"Well you left us, you didn't say anything, I had just got you back and then you left, I was angry at you, relived you had come back, of course there was more than one emotion!" she shouted the very last bit Jack knew Gwen too well and knew that it was a cover up, her shouting didn't stop him.  
>"So there was no sadness on your face then?" There was a look of pure terror on Gwen's face; Jack knew exactly what to do.<br>"No." Said Gwen,  
>"you sure?" Pressed Jack<br>"Very sure." She replied,  
>"That there was not even a flicker on your face?"<br>"no there wasn't" she said, starting to lose her cool  
>"cause I could have sworn I saw some."<br>"Better go and get your eyes tested." The fear open on her face  
>"I guess I should." Gwen let out a breath and relaxed.<br>"But are you sure..." Gwen had lost it; Jack being him had known just how far to push to get his answer.  
>"Yes okay I was bloody sad!" She shouted<br>"Sad because I had just made the biggest mistake of my life because you couldn't come back a bloody day earlier!" Jack was puzzled by this, whether Gwen saw the look on his face or just kept going it would never be known.  
>"And because you couldn't come back a day earlier I am now going to get bloody married to someone I don't love!"<br>"Now wait there." Cut in Jack "Why the hell would it matter if I came back a day earlier?" he asked her.  
>"Because I was planning to break up with Rhys when you came back." She said slightly more calm.<br>"Why would that matter if I came back or not?"  
>"Because I was going to leave him for you! You idiot!"<br>"Why would you do that?" Gwen laughed in quite an insane way.  
>"Because I love you! I have done for months now! Do you know what it's like having sex with your boyfriend and having to imagine it was your boss to get off? To keep changing your focus and keep busy at work or you end up staring at your boss? Do you know what it's like to every single time you see your boss you want to kiss him so much it is nearly unbearable? Do you know...?" But Gwen was cut off by a pair of warm lips pressing themselves to hers, a hand wrapped it's self around her waist pulling her towards a body, a tongue traced her lips lightly and she opened them to give it access, her tongue and the foreign one were now dancing, moving in time with the beat of their hearts. The hand around her waist was rubbing circles on the bare skin where her shirt had ridden up, her arms, without her noticing she had done it, had wound up around his neck, her left sliding further up and curling her fingers into his brown hair. After about 3 minutes or so it could have been a year or even a century they broke apart, chests heaving to get the air into their lungs.<br>Gwen didn't know exactly what was happening but she knew comparing the spark and the fireworks when her and Jack were kissing to the mild warming sensation when Rhys kissed her, that she was giving him the engagement ring back. 


End file.
